{"id":24200,"date":"2018-08-13T10:30:25","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T08:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breinco.com\/breincosmartblog\/epds-environmental-product-declarations\/"},"modified":"2018-08-13T10:30:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T08:30:25","slug":"epds-environmental-product-declarations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breinco.com\/en\/breincosmartblog\/epds-environmental-product-declarations\/","title":{"rendered":"EPDs: Environmental Product Declarations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Environmental Product Declarations for precast concrete products as a pathway towards the \u201csustainabilisation\u201d of construction<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Written by Alejandro L\u00f3pez Vidal, Technical Director of ANDECE<\/a> (National Association of the Precast Concrete Industry), of which BREINCO is a member company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sustainability, as an approach aimed at simultaneously fulfilling certain requirements based on environmental, social, and economic criteria, has evolved exponentially in recent years. It is now difficult to find any field of activity that can ignore this concept, in an increasingly demanding society and a more competitive market.<\/p>\n

Construction has a major impact on the three dimensions of sustainability: the environmental<\/strong> dimension, due to the enormous amount of resources (energy, land, water, etc.) it consumes and the impacts it generates; the social<\/strong> dimension, because whether it is a building or an infrastructure, it is intended to fulfil a series of functions primarily for citizens; and the economic<\/strong> dimension, due to its significant global weight.<\/p>\n

Within construction, the products required to create new buildings or refurbish existing ones are of crucial importance.<\/p>\n

Currently, the consideration of environmental impacts in construction products has evolved significantly, with the emergence of the life cycle assessment (LCA) concept, which allows for the evaluation and quantification of a range of material impacts throughout their life span. This is the basis of what is known as Environmental Product Declarations (EPD).<\/p>\n

What is not measured cannot be improved<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The Life Cycle<\/strong> (LC) is defined as the set of stages of a product, from the extraction and processing of raw materials, production, distribution, transport, use and maintenance, to end-of-life management. The sum of all material and energy inputs and outputs (waste and emissions) constitutes the environmental impact of the product.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

EPDs<\/strong> are documents that provide transparent and third-party verified information on the environmental performance of a product, based on its life cycle assessment (LCA). In this way, the EPD provides an environmental profile based on quantified and verifiable data, using standardized impact categories such as:<\/p>\n

▪ Environmental impact indicators:<\/strong> global warming potential (carbon footprint), ozone depletion potential, acidification potential of soil and water, etc.;
\n▪ Resource consumption indicators:<\/strong> use of renewable and non-renewable primary energy, net freshwater consumption, etc.;
\n▪ Waste and output flows:<\/strong> hazardous waste disposal, recyclable materials, etc.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that the fact that a product has an Environmental Product Declaration does not necessarily mean it is environmentally better than another product without one, although it should be an effective tool for improving environmental performance (for example, identifying opportunities to reduce electricity or water consumption without compromising performance).<\/p>\n

EPDs are becoming increasingly required information in the construction sector. This is driven, on the one hand, by the growing number of buildings certified under sustainability schemes such as LEED or BREEAM, which require a certain percentage of certified products with an EPD. On the other hand, their use is expected to increase further, particularly in public works, driven by the new Public Procurement Law, which promotes the inclusion of products with environmental criteria.<\/p>\n

At an international level, countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands already have or are about to implement legal requirements encouraging the development of EPDs. In Europe alone, more than 2,000 EPDs for construction products are registered.<\/p>\n

ANDECE\u2019s experience with sectoral EPDs<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In June 2017, ANDECE launched one of its most ambitious collaborative projects to date, developing six EPDs covering a wide range of precast concrete products, grouped into six categories (structures, floors, fa\u00e7ades, drainage systems, hollow lightweight elements, and pavements)<\/strong>. This allows for a highly accurate estimation of the environmental performance of the Spanish industry, from which improvement measures can be established to enhance production efficiency, in line with the significant development achieved over the past 25 years, positioning the industry as a global reference.<\/p>\n

More than 50 member companies voluntarily participated in this project, including BREINCO<\/strong><\/a> in the fa\u00e7ades and pavements categories. The process involved sending questionnaires to manufacturers to collect data such as raw material consumption, energy, water, electricity, and waste generation. This information allowed the consulting firm responsible for the project to calculate average values for each category.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reference: Summary document of the pavement EPD. Open access on ANDECE website [+]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another key reason behind this initiative was ANDECE\u2019s aim, as sole holder of this information, to provide manufacturers with documents that help improve their position compared to other construction solutions, as EPDs are still not widely implemented.<\/p>\n

Sectoral EPDs represent a starting point that should encourage each company, in the coming years, to develop individual EPDs for their own products, while also implementing measures to improve environmental performance throughout the product life cycle, such as water reuse systems, increased use of recycled materials, renewable electricity supply, or the incorporation of decontaminating capabilities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cANDECE publishes its sectoral Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for precast concrete elements\u201d. ANDECE website<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopment, obtaining and purpose of Environmental Product Declarations\u201d. ANDECE website<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cVEEP Project: circular economy and innovation in precast concrete\u201d. Cemento Hormig\u00f3n magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTowards the sustainabilisation of construction (I) Where are we?\u201d. Ecoconstrucci\u00f3n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTowards the sustainabilisation of construction (II) Where should we go?\u201d. Ecoconstrucci\u00f3n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTowards the sustainabilisation of construction (III)\u201d. Ecoconstrucci\u00f3n<\/a>    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Environmental Product Declarations are documents that transparently and independently verified by a third party provide information on the environmental performance of a product based on its life cycle assessment (LCA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1480],"tags":[1759,1667,1084],"class_list":["post-24200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guestblogging","tag-ciclo-de-vida","tag-dap","tag-sostenibilidad"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEPDs: Environmental Product Declarations - Breinco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breinco.com\/en\/breincosmartblog\/epds-environmental-product-declarations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPDs: Environmental Product Declarations - 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